


a flaming raft that drifts towards the sunset

by Skiewrites



Series: A Big Bag of LU Fics... [2]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: (does it count if its just the funeral?), Angst, Birthdays, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe, Minor Character Death, Trauma, Warriors (linked universe) is a good big brother, Wind (Linked Universe) Angst, it's winds birthday but he no likey, wind is a very traumatised 14 yr old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:02:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24499117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiewrites/pseuds/Skiewrites
Summary: 'Kids were supposed to like their birthday,' Warriors thought as he laid back, facing the little number of stars visible from within the dense forest of Wild's time. 'So why did Wind seemed to be so against his birthday?'
Relationships: Warriors & Wind (Linked Universe)
Series: A Big Bag of LU Fics... [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769746
Comments: 4
Kudos: 156





	a flaming raft that drifts towards the sunset

Out of everyone in the group, Wind was the most open about what had happened during his adventures, or, at least, he talked about his adventures the most. He used it as conversation starters, for examples when it came to strategies and to entertain the group during their campfire. Whenever someone in the group had a question, Wind was able to answer it without hesitation, something that never happened with the rest of the group.

So, when the group came across a question that Wind refused to answer, it left them stumped, if only because of how simple the question was.

"So, when is your birthday?" Warriors asked with a smile after Wind finish explaining exactly why he had been wearing a green tunic during his adventure. Such a strange ritual for people to adopt, and if Time’s face was anything to go by, something about the ritual was incorrect. Time had been about twelve when he had tumbled through one of Cia’s portals and into his own world, wearing the bright green tunic that Wind had just described to him, so it couldn’t be the fact that Time was not a hero when he was that age.

"...Huh?" Wind said, clearly acting dumber than he needed to be. He had heard everything else that Warriors had said to him before that point, so why he was pretending not to hear him?

"When is your birthday?" Warriors repeated, the rest of the group quieting their conversation to listen in to what Wind was going to say.

"Oh," Wind thought for a while, longer than was strictly necessary as even though the group had been travelling through time and space, the dates had stayed pretty consistent, making it easy to know when things were supposed to happen. "It's soon."

"Yeah, when?" Wild butted into the conversation, looking up from his almost clean pot, making it clear to Warriors and Wind that their conversation now included everyone.

"Hmm, not telling." Wind's normally cheerful voice was now cold. That really should have been the first warning that something was wrong, and that they should have stopped the questions there and then. The group would have if it was another person after all.

"What do you mean 'not telling'? It's just your birthday," Four seemed to be asking aloud rather than asking Wind, but it was enough for the young boy to stand up, his fists balled up.

"I'm sorry, did I stutter? I'm not telling you when my birthday is." Wind was clearly trying to be intimidating, but it was hard to take him seriously with his cracking voice, meaning that the end of his sentence was at least two octaves higher than the start of it. Thankfully, the group managed to hold in their giggles. Now was not the time to go teasing the sailor on something he couldn’t control.

"Why not?" Hyrule asked.

"Because you guys will make it a bigger deal than it needs to be!" Wind complained, causing eyerolls from the rest of the group. Of course they was going to make a deal about someone's birthday! It was supposed to be a day all about them! For obvious reasons, it was very hard to celebrate someone's birthday while on the road, but they had manged to make it work for Twilight's birthday.

"C'mon Wind, pretty please!" Wild begged, putting on that puppy face that even Time struggled to say no to. Of course, everyone knew that Wild just wanted an excuse to make extra nice food and more of that monster cake that was made for Twilight's birthday, but no one in the group was going to complain about cake.

"Fine. I'll tell you." Wind said with a pause, looking at everyone in the group one by one, before letting out a mischievous smile. That was the group's second warning. Nothing good ever happened when the sailor smiled like that.

"Time has to tell us his age first.”

The group quickly turned to look at Time, while Wind quickly sat himself down, his limps shaking and his breath coming quickly. None of the group seemed to notice.

"Okay Time, you have to tell us your age now!" Wild exclaimed, his pot completely forgotten for the conversation at hand, only for Time to let out a laugh.

"I see what you're trying to do guys," Time said with a smile, "But it's going to do more than that for me to tell you guys my age, y'know?”

"Oh no. Time's not going to tell us his age. What a shame. I guess I'm never going to be able to tell you guys when my birthday is. How tragic." Wind sighed as he laid his bedroll out and laid his head away from the group.

Third warning.

The group waiting almost fifteen minutes before talking again, when it looked like Wind was asleep, his chest rising and falling in even intervals.

“So, you guys didn’t work together to try and blackmail me into giving you guys my age?” Time asked, throwing a look to the youngest of the group. The rest shook their heads.

"I bet his birthday is next month." Wild said, his pot now clean and put away into his slate. Legend rolled his eyes.

"Really? With the way he reacted. I'm giving it two weeks." Legend replied, crossing his arms and leaning back against the same tree that Sky was now sleeping against.

“Maybe it was in the last month or so, and he doesn’t want to tell us because he doesn’t want us to feel bad that we forgot about it?” Hyrule suggested. The others gave him a deadpan stare, clearly not agreeing with his statement.

"Is that your bet?" Four asked, smiling as Hyrule put his hands in the air defensively.

"And lose the little rupees that I have? No thanks," Hyrule huffed.

"You not betting Warriors? This sort of thing is right up your ally" Time asked under his breath. Warriors rolled his eyes, but it was clear that the bet against Time's age was not as secret as they had wanted it to be.

"I'm not going to make a losing bet." Warriors muttered back, his eyes not moving from the presumed sleeping boy, his thoughts far from the current conversation.

The group continued with their betting, making sure to keep quiet as to not wake their sleeping members, until Time decided that it was too late to stay up any longer, not with the amount of walking they had to do the next day.

'Kids were supposed to like their birthday,' Warriors thought as he laid back, facing the little number of stars visible from within the dense forest of Wild's time. 'So why did Wind seemed to be so against his birthday?'

=-=-=-=

_It started on his eleventh birthday._

_His family stand on the pier, watching the small raft drift onwards towards the horizon, before one of the men from the village lit his arrow and shot the boat. His sister started screaming in his grandmother’s arms when the boat exploded into a rush of flames._

_Link just rubbed his sweaty palm on his tunic, his newest, cleanest one. The one that he was only allowed to wear when someone is getting married or there’s a new baby being introduced or during the coming of age ceremony._

_Or during final journey ceremonies._

_He listened to one of the women behind him muttering about how lucky they are that it was such a beautiful day, because if there was rain the fire wouldn’t be able to take properly. The men congratulated the shot the marksmen made. Aryll continued with her crying._

_Grandma pulled them away not long after, and they were stared after as they walk away. Grandma whispered something to him, but he doesn't listen. They arrived at the house, Grandma's house, not their Ma and Da's house, and Grandma goes to try and get Aryll to have a nap, but she's still crying, nowhere close to sleeping._

_Link sneaks out of the house as soon as he can, and races to the beach, because the raft on fire is still visible from the shore. When he goes back in, Grandma smiled said sadly at him and promises cake for his cake for dinner, if he wants. He shook his head, and just went to bed._

_His birthday wish is that next year is better._

=-=-=-=

The group woke up the next day and decided that pretending that the previous night did not happen at all.

Well, mostly did not happen. Wind was still upset with the group for trying to pressure information out of him, Legend had memorised who had betted what, and Warriors was still wondering what had happened for Wind to become so upset over his birthday.

They didn’t address the issue that day, not that most of the group would call it an issue of course. After all, Time not telling the group his age was not much of an issue, and Legend refused to talk about his adventures and Four was clearly hiding things about his sword, and they were not considered issues either.

But this was an issue, in Warrior's mind at least. Because Wind was not even fourteen yet, he was still young enough to enjoy his birthday with childish glee. Warriors remembered how he celebrated his birthday during his teens, and while he knew that Wind wouldn't be the same as him, there was no way that Wind would try and hide the fact that he was drinking alcohol, and Warriors was sure that Wind would much rather hang around with his family than the village kids like he had, but that didn't explain why he was so upset when it came to his birthday.

The thought that it was something to do with the fact that he would not be around his family during his birthday drifted into his mind, but he got the impression that it was more than that. If it were something like that though, Warriors got the feeling that Wind would actually talk to the group about his birthday and not try and dodge around the issue like he was trying to do.

Legend tried to ask Wind during their midday break about his birthday.

Wind stomped off, only coming back when Twilight went off to find him and Wolfie came back. Wind did not talk for the rest of the day, staying clear from the group and even sitting himself on the edge of camp that night.

Clearly an issue.

=-=-=-=

_It continued his twelfth birthday._

_He had fallen asleep on the lookout again. It annoyed his Grandma when he did that, and Aryll always thought it was funny, but he couldn't help it. He knew the flaming raft wasn't there anymore, but he couldn't help but look over to the horizon where he had last seen it and see it still floating. It's never on fire when he sees it though, looking exactly how it did before being set aflame, and his Ma and Da aren't laying peacefully on the wood and covered in cloth, but looking over the island with their hands held tightly together, his Ma leaning on his Da like she always did. He's too far away to see their faces, but Link always hoped that they were smiling, even though he doubted it._

_He wouldn't be happy if he could only watch after his kids and never be able to get closer or help them when they needed it._

_Aryll woke him up the next day, and even though the memory of the flaming boat is still in the forefront of his mind, he allowed her to drag him back to the house, and Grandma gives him the tunic that he knew that she's been working on for a while. When Aryll gave him permission to use her telescope, Link wondered if his birthday wish from last year actually came true, and he allowed himself to actually enjoy the day._

_That is, until Aryll is kidnapped by a huge bird._

_He spends that night on a raft of his own, staring at the stars while his stomach is tied to the mast so that he doesn't turn over in his sleep. He wants to make a birthday wish, one that promises that he will get Aryll home safely._

_He doesn't make the wish though, not even on the shooting stars that whiz through the sky. He doesn't want to risk it._

=-=-=-=

If there was one thing that the group had in common other than their name and possessing the Spirit of the Hero, was ignoring issues.

It suited Wind just fine, however. It was perfect in fact, as it fitted in with his plan to never celebrate his birthday again.

He knew of the bet that was going around the group, he wasn't asleep when they had thought he had been. He knew that the others were trying to hide it from him, but they weren't doing a very good job with it, always muttering to themselves but always going quiet when he walked close to them.

Sometimes they would try and slide him in with the conversation about birthdays and when his was exactly, but Wind would always just refuse to tell them. Is this what Time felt like when the group asked him about his age? Surely not, Time always had this smirk on his face that promised them that they would never believe what he would say, so it was better to say nothing at all. This was not the same situation. The others were just not listening!

It would be funny to see the look on Legend's face when he found out when his birthday was, with how many rupees he was going to lose, but it just wasn't worth the fuss that the others were going to pull on him when they found out, and with how close it was, it was just not worth the risk.

=-=-=-=

_Link gives up after his thirteenth birthday._

_Tetra suggested they go on an adventure for his birthday, which sounded fun at the time, but last he went on an adventure on his birthday he ended up stabbing a man in the head a couple of days later, so he really should have thought about it more before agreeing with the pirate._

_Then Tetra goes missing._

_Then Link is looking for sand and travelling with fairies (just like the Hero of Time!) and fighting with a sword that can stop time (the Hero of Time could manipulate time too!) and fighting against something more terrifying than some random red-headed guy who wants to take over the world, because at least he was human. This thing was not human._

_(Did the Hero of Time fight something bigger than Ganon, before he disappeared? Something closer to a concept than a person?)_

_Then Link woke up to Tetra shaking his shoulder and asking him if he was okay. He had passed out apparently, unable to be woken for ten minutes._

_It had only been ten minutes._

_Link asked if he could go home. Tetra agreed easily. The crew are confused. Link doesn't move from the ship's lookout, and wonders if he would be able to see the flaming raft again._

_When they arrive on Outset, Aryll comes yelling to them about a sword that had washed up on the shore and dragged Link to it before he could get a word in edgeways._

_The sword, so familiar to him that he can still remember how it felt to hold, the Phantom Sword, sat in the sand like it had been there the entire time._

_It hadn't._

_It shouldn't exist._

_It had been a dream._

_"It's a gift from the gods," Aryll told him as he takes a step closer to it, and he wondered if he was dreaming again. "They want to wish you a happy birthday too!"_

_As if the Goddess’s would give him a gift, not when they were so reluctant to help him in the first place. As if Aryll knew the whole story of what Link had actually been up to during his travels across the Great Sea, because he never told her and or anyone else. He shook his head, the wind joining him, pushing the sea up and up and up the beach to where the sword laid, trying to drown it like his last sword did._

_He hasn’t got the time. It slipped through his hands like sand in a timer, counting down the seconds until he must go again._

_He picked it up before the sea can touch it._

_He threw it into the corner of his room so that he can scream into his pillow._

_He’s only thirteen, but the one thing on his mind is finally resting, not sleeping, resting._

_He doesn’t sleep for three nights, until he collapses in the kitchen, bashing his head against the wooden floor and giving him a concussion that doesn’t leave for a week._

_He decided that he just wasn't going to have a birthday anymore, if this were how horrible they could get._

=-=-=-=

Wind spent the next week dodging questions about his birthday, rolling his eyes at the others trying to guess when it was and snapping when Legend decided that he was going to try and annoy the question out of him. Because of the unwanted attention, Wind often found himself walking with either Time, who was very good at glaring at the others to keep them in line, Sky, who was asleep at the time of the first conversation about his birthday and therefore made an effort to not involve himself with the groups antics, and Warriors, who seemed to be guilty for starting the whole debate in the first place.

Wind made sure not the blame the latter for everyone's actions though. Even though he did ask the original question, it's not like Warrior's knew that Wind wasn't going to be forthcoming with his answer. Wind wondered how out of character it was for him to refuse to answer a question. That sort of thing was more up Four or Legend's alley, even Time and Twilight refused answers more than Wind did. Maybe he was being slightly unreasonable...

But then he remembers waking up in a panic, not remembering what was real and what wasn't, and decided that he was being totally reasonable and it was the others who didn't understand that he was going to have to draw the line somewhere.

He was only thirteen, fourteen tomorrow (oh god, his birthday was tomorrow, things were going to go bad tomorrow, always went bad on his birthday-), but he had been on his own share of adventures. He knew that not everything was sunshine and rainbows. There were things that he would never tell his family. He might be more open with the group of heroes, their shared experiences making it easier, but that didn't open all of the doors for him.

He spent the night before the big day staring at the stars, naming the constellations in his head and drawing lines from one place to another, just like his Da had done with him when he had been ten. He mouthed the story that kept the stars company, not just those of the Hero of Time, defeating monsters all alone with the exception of a small fairy, but of the brave sailors who took to the seas when the goddesses decided to flood Hyrule, just like his Ma told them before bed.

He was tired, but he couldn't sleep.

He can't sleep on his birthday.

The last time he had slept on his birthday, he had almost died so many times that he lost count.

The last time he slept on his birthday, he had made friends who he would never be able to see ever again.

He hummed a song, the name of it lost to him. He was never quite sure where he had picked up the melody, but it came to him when sleep did, drawing him closer and closer but keeping him up for reasons unknown.

"Wind?" He felt his throat tightening at Legend's call, making it hard to breath, let alone hum. He wondered if Legend was able to tell that Wind had his eyes open from where he sat on watch, but when nothing came Wind assumed he couldn't.

Hours passed, and Legend woke Hyrule up for middle watch, and hours pass by again because Hyrule is being tapped on the shoulder by Wild, who was always up at the same time every day without prompting (unless he was on deaths door and even that was debatable), up before even the farmers and ranchers of the group.

Wind listened in silence as Wild started to get breakfast for the day ready, waiting until the sun had at least partially risen before pretending to wake up himself.

The others were going to get on his case if they found out that he had forced himself to stay up all night.

But he can't sleep on his birthday.

It was only this once.

(It was only this once, unless he decided later that he shouldn't sleep, just in case, and the day after that too, because you couldn't be too safe.)

No comment was made about Wind's early rise, after all, sailors are up just as early or even earlier than those who worked the land, there was no commanding the tide after all. No one mentioned how tired the now fourteen-year-old looked, because they all looked tired, weeks of travelling would do that to someone. No one mentioned the dazed look in his eye or the heavy blinking.

Legend did ask about the humming.

"You must have been imagining it," Wind replied, hiding a small yawn behind his mouth as he dug into the light but filling breakfast that Wild had been so kind to make for the group.

"So, you've never heard of the Ballard of the Wind Fish before?" Legend asked, crossing his arms at the younger boy with a look in his eyes that Wind had never seen before.

He wondered if that was what Tetra saw when he demanded to go home on his thirteenth birthday.

"Nope!" Wind made sure to pop the 'p' extra loud to gain someone else's attention, so that Legend would back off with his questioning. He had never talked about the Wind Fish's role in his second adventure, or much at all about his second adventure, and he was for sure not going to start now, not on his birthday. They were just asking for everything to go wrong if they did that.

Time told the group to start breaking up camp, and Wind jumped to it, making sure to completely avoid Legend by insistent to Wild that he would wash up for today.

(If he were back home, his family would be insisting that it was his birthday and that he shouldn't be doing chores on his birthday. But it wasn't his birthday with the group of heroes, just another day, and he was going to act like it.)

The rest of the morning went smoothly. Four lead the way, they were going towards his grandfather's forge, meaning that the pace was slower than normal, which Wind found that he didn't mind, preferred actually. He was going to be slower than normal anyways because of his lack of sleep, but if Smithy was in charge then nobody would notice.

He ignored Legend and Warriors staring that the back of his head.

If they did notice, well, it was none of their business.

Just let him get through the day, please.

(That was not a wish, however. Wishes on this day was not something that happened, or they would not come true and that would give disastrous results.)

It was almost midday when they bumped into the Postman.

The Postman handed him a letter with a smile, before telling the group loudly about how he really must be on his way immediately, though it was nice to see the travellers again, and they all watch in a stunned silence as he ran off. How the postal system in Hyrule worked, Wind would never know, and it was not good for his sleep deprived brain to think about it anymore more than he must, least he say something stupid and show the others that he did not sleep the previous night.

But how weird was it, that Wind was getting post when they were in Four's Hyrule, when the Great Sea would not exist for centuries, and even that was only a maybe, as the timelines were strange and confusing and something that Wind also didn't want to think about when he was sleep deprived.

So, he focused more on the letter. It was clearly from Aryll, but it was thicker than the rest had been. Despite that, he automatically knew what it was before he even opened it.

Aryll did this for him every year for his birthday, without fail. Even when the day had been spent standing on the pier watching the flaming raft. Even when Aryll hadn't been around to give the envelope, leaving him to find it later, on his bed while he was packing. Even when he screamed and shouted to her last year after he jumped off Tera’s boat, his mind still on his ten minute dream and not on the tears streaming down his little sisters face. 

Each time, he had read it alone, whether that had been on the beach with fire dancing on the water, in the middle of the ocean on a small red boat, or in the middle of the night when he had decided to give up on sleep altogether.

He usually ended up kicking something in anger by the time he finished reading it, though the last time had ended with a broken toe.

He hoped he didn't get the urge to kick something this time. That would be awkward to explain.

"What's that sailor?" Wind smiled but shrugged of Warrior's question, slipping the letter into his bag as he continued forward, pretending that his trip on air had been intentional, and not because his brain and his body were not in sync like they should be.

"Just a letter from Aryll. I'll read it later when we're not travelling." He replied, walking to catch up with Four and Time, trying to get away from Warrior's suspicious looks. He would be reading it alone again, even though he promised last time that he would be next to her when he next received his birthday card from the best little sister in the entire Great Sea.

If he believed in birthday wishes, he would have wished to be back at home with her, so that he could keep his promise, so that they could all be smiling and laughing like there was nothing wrong with their flooded world.

But he no longer believed in birthday wishes. They only brought bad luck.

He got a look from Warriors when they decided to sit down for a little bit of lunch, but he pointedly looked away. This is not what he meant, and he knew the other knew this. Why did everyone have to be so noisy all of a sudden?

Sky asked if he had read his letter yet when they get back to walking, and Wind only rolled his eyes at the elder before replying with a curt no. Even Time threw a lingering glance at him as slowed down for a second to take in the surroundings, his mind stuck on the topics of Koroks and Picori, wondering if he would be able to see them now that he was fourteen instead of thirteen.

The day goes on quietly, without any major event, and as the minutes drag on and the hours slowly pass, Wind couldn't help the rising anxiety he was feeling, coming from his stomach and rising to his heart, making his chest tight and his head light.

Something bad was going to happen.

He was certain that something bad was going to happen.

It was... Maybe not now, but it would in the next hour! And if not in the next hour... then surely by the time camp was set up!

But camp is set up, and there is a roaring fire giving the groups the desired heat that Four's Hyrule was sorely lacking, and nothing bad had happened... yet. Nothing bad had happened yet, but it was Wind's birthday, so surely something bad was going to happened, because it always did!

But Wild is making dinner and the group is beginning to settle down, and nothing bad ever happened to them when they did this, so why would it start now?

~~It would start now because it was Wind's birthday and his birthday did always ruin everything...~~

Well, the phrase 'settle down' was pretty subjective in this instance, because Legend and Warriors were yelling loudly at each other (loud enough to attract any monsters that were camping nearby...) and Wild was cutting up the vegetables with quick precise cuts that looked like years of practice (but he wasn't looking where he was cutting and he was talking to Time and what if he were to miss the vegetable...), while Sky was carving (what if he missed the wood with his knife...) and Hyrule was telling a story to Twilight and Four, standing and waving his hands around to re-enact what had happened (but he was standing close to the fire.. what if what if what i-)

Wind pulled his eyes away from the group to dig around his bag and pulled out the letter that the Postman had given him that morning. That very uneventful morning. The almost too uneventful morning.

He carefully opened the back of the letter, sealed with the very posh wax that he knew Grandma kept for when they had to send the very important documents to other islands to show their livestock inventory, and for when Aryll made his birthday cards. He made sure not to rip the wax seal, not when it was in the shape of a very cute pig, and it made him wonder which of the townsfolk Aryll had bribed and begged into making the stamp for her.

It was a very cute stamp though.

He carefully pulled the card out of the envelope, and he smiled when he noticed glitter coming out with it, though not as much as last year, which left a sour taste in his mouth. Last year he had yelled at her about the glitter, freaking out because of how much it reminded him of Ciela. He had apologised for it of course, but the effect of his actions was still there.

He took in the drawing on the front of the card as long as he could without tearing up, his finger tracing the lines she had drawn, in pencil this time, not charcoal. She must have seen what had happened to the one she had made for his twelfth birthday, and the guilt for crying on to it and then getting it covered in sea foam from the storms coming back twofold.

But there was a huge amount of detail in the picture, it was clear that she put so much time and thought into the image, just like she had for the previous years.

For his eleventh birthday, it had been all five of them, Grandma, Aryll, Ma and Da, and then himself in the middle. He had nearly ripped it on sight, the only thing stopping was the fact that Aryll had made it especially for him, and way before the accident. His twelve birthday had been the view from on top of the lookout, and had reminded him of home no matter how far he had to go for his travels. Last year had been a picture of him holding the Master Sword high in the air, the back of his hand gleaming with the full might of the Triforce of Courage, and his green tunic moving with the wind, golden glitter stuck to the paper to show the might of the Triforce. It had made him feel sick, but he still hung it on the wall with pride.

This year, it was something much more abstract. The Windwaker took up most of the page, how she managed to draw it without it being there for her to study, he would never know. With each swirl was added details that he knew didn't exist on the actual artefact, and in the background was colours that he didn't know that Aryll could draw with, he had never seen paints so bright and colourful! He could see the wind picking up the colourful leaves and he could feel the song that the wind was singing. The glitter was much harder to notice, but as he ran his hand over the paper, he noticed how much glue was used to make sure that the glitter would never move of the page, all because of how he yelled at her when he saw the glitter last year.

He would never know how she was so talented with art, but he hoped she would continue with it.

He opened the card slowly, almost having to tear himself away from the image, before reading the small text on the inside of the card. It was not as much as it normally was, but Wind didn't find himself caring. This was from his sister; she could have drawn him a stick man and he would still be in tears that she went through the effort to make it for him. He ran his finger underneath the words as he read what she had sent him, written as neatly as an eleven-year-old could.

_To the best brother in the whole of the Great Sea,_

_I know you don't like your birthday, and I'm so sorry that there's nothing I can do to make you like it better. You deserve to be happy, and you deserve to have a whole day to yourself, where you can do whatever you want and not have to fight monsters and save the day, because I know that you said that you don't mind saving people but I also know it makes you sad sometimes, and you deserve to always be happy!_

_I hope that you have the best day ever, even if that's not with me._

_Happy birthday Link!!!_

"What do you have there?"

Wind looked up quickly, quickly closing the card and facing the rest of the group, who had all stopped their activities, apart from Wild, who was still mixing their stew.

He better not have creased the card in his rush to close it.

"Nothing. Just the letter that Aryll send to me today." The words tumbled out of his mouth in a rush, tripping over themselves to be heard to the rest of the group, who clearly didn't believe his explanation.

"A bit fancy for a letter, isn't it?" Legend's question was clearly aimed more towards the group, but it didn't stop Wind from snapping at him.

"It's none of your business!"

"What! I never said it was, I'm just saying-" Legend was unable to finish his sentence due to the slap to the back of his head. Legend turned and tightened his jaw at Warriors. "What was that for?!"

"Didn't you hear the sailor? What does it matter that his sister decided to dress up the lett-"

"Wait a sec, is it a birthday card?" Twilight asked, having used the distraction that Warriors and Legend were freely giving to take a closer look at the paper held in Wind's hand.

"What part of 'none of your business' didn't you get?" Wind gripped the card tighter; he was going to crease it, he was going to ruin it and that's another card he's ruined and poor Aryll isn't going to blame him like she should.

"Your birthdays today? Why didn't you say so?" Sky asked, clearly not up to date with the debate that the rest of the group had been having for the past couple of weeks.

"Because I didn't want to! Because if I had, you guys would have fussed about it all day and that's exactly what I don't want." The others weren't going to get it. It was not out of modesty that he didn't tell the others about his birthday, did they see that? Why can't they see that?! His birthday was going to ruin everything, why don't they understand that???

"Guys, we need to-" Warriors started, but he was drowned out by the other insisting that being fussed over was all a part of the birthday experience, that they had done so with Twilight and it had been fine, so why would it be any different with him. He looked over to Time for help and support, but the eldest in the group looked lost for words, and instead was staring at the group to Wind, and back to the group again, his mouth opening and closing again, before looking to Warriors with the helpless look in his eye, reminding him of the young boy with masks and a smile that was completely fake.

"Oh Wind, if I had known it was your birthday I would have made cake-"

"You're fourteen now! Surely that's something you'ld’ve wanted to celebrate-"

"The point of birthdays is to celebrate that one person, Wind! The entire point is to fuss-"

"Yeah, well, I hate my birthday!" Wind's shout was enough to stop the group talking. "It's stupid and everything always goes wrong and people always end up hurt or turning out to be fake or even dead and it's always going to be my fault!" Wind decided that was the perfect time run off, leaving the card on the tree log as he stomped deeper into the unfamiliar woods.

Maybe he had overreacted a bit back there. Maybe he should have just told them to drop bit, or maybe he should have never opened the card in the first place, he knew exactly what it was after all, it would have stopped the others from finding out about his birthday.

Ugh, he was overreacting, wasn't he? It was just another day of the year, there was no need to act the way that he did, there was no need to shout at the others and there was no need to try and hide it from the others.

But he hated his birthday! He hated how unlucky the day was, and he hated the memories that always came up with it, and he hated that everyone always tried to pretend that it was going to be a great day when it never was!

He kicked the tree in frustration, gasping out in pain as he felt the force push through his foot. He tried to wiggle his toes. Well, didn't feel broken like last time, but it was at least bruised.

He sat down on a cracked tree stump, looking around the woods. He was wondered far enough away that he could no longer hear the group, and the light of their campfire could not penetrate through the undergrowth of the woods.

But he could find his way back to the group when he felt ready, he was sure of it.

He never got lost, he was a sailor, and sailors never got lost. Or that's what his Ma's stories said. Sailors would find the stars to get home. His Da had always told him that.

But he'll go back later. It was still his birthday, meaning that there was still a chance that something terrible could happen, and if that was the case then he could only hope that being away from the group would mean that it would only happen to him for once, and not involve anyone he loved.

=-=-=-=

"Why in Din, Nayru Farore and Goddess fucking Hylia herself did you not drop the topic when Wind asked you to?" Warriors couldn't believe that it had come to this, him standing over the group of heroes with his fingers pressed to the bridge of his nose. The others at least had the decency to look awkward and uncomfortable under his gaze.

They were worse than children sometimes. He would know. Time had been a menace when he was twelve.

"I didn't think he was being serious about his birthday," Legend said as looked deep into the woods where Wind had wondered off to. "He's been off all day, I thought some teasing would snap him out of it, it usually does."

"I've never seen a kid that hated their birthday..." Four mused, before Warriors let out a short laugh.

"He might be fourteen, but I would hardly call him a kid. He's been through as much as any of us, and would you call yourselves innocent after your adventures?" Warriors let them stew in the silence of his words before letting out a small sigh. "That's what I thought."

"But that doesn't explain why he doesn't like his birthday." Sky muttered. Time rolled his eyes at his words.

"His adventure started on his birthday. You probably wouldn't like your birthday either if it started on a day that was supposed to be about you." Time replied, looking at everyone's shocked faces one by one with a raised eyebrow. "Does anyone actually listen to him when he tells his stories, or do you just pander to his behaviour? He's trying to recover from his trauma, not boast about his accomplishments.”

The forest went silent to Time's words as everyone took it in.

"Right, I'm going to go after him and convince him to come back to the group. Anything I should know about the forest before I do Four?" There was no room in Warrior's voice for protests. Four shook his head.

"There hasn't been a sighing of any monsters in these parts for months. The Minish look after it pretty well." Four replied in a small voice. Warriors nodded, but picked up his sword, nevertheless. You can never be too safe.

"You should know that he didn't sleep last night, and he probably won't want to sleep tonight." Legend said quietly. The others turned their head quickly to look at him. "I'm not going to say why, but I have my suspicions as to why that's the case. Just letting you know that that might something you'll have to talk to him about. The sleeping bit at least."

Warriors nodded his head to Legend's words, before following along Wind footsteps with a small lantern.

=-=-=-=

Five minutes ago, Wind decided that he should probably be getting back to the group now. It was almost too dark to see properly, the stars offering no light to guide him home and because he never took a note as to where he was going in the first place, he wasn't going to be able to use them to get himself home, leaving him lost in the woods.

He was lost in the woods, somewhere in Four's time, and he was never going to make it back to the others.

He's lost and its cold and he was hungry, starving because he hadn't had any food since lunch and Wild was probably still working on his stew.

Fuck Wild's stew, all he wanted was some of Grandma's soup, warm and thick and steamy, perfect in every single way because Grandma never made soup wrong. Aryll would be sitting next to him telling him all about her day and telling him what the plan for tomorrow was. It wasn't much to ask, was it? Could he just go home and pretend that none of it ever happened?

Wind contemplated kicking a tree again, but decided against it, deciding to lay on the ground and stare up at the stars again. All he wanted to was go back to his sunny little island in the middle of the Great Sea, in fact, he could imagine it now, all he had to do was close his eyes and imagine the smell of the pigs mixed with the salt in the air and the wind flying through his hair. All he had to do was close his eyes to imagine how tightly Aryll would hug him and how Grandma would hold him close during the long nights and promise that everything was real. All he had to do was close his-

He was not going to close his eyes.

He couldn't close his eyes.

He can't keep doing this-

"Wind? C'mon, where are you?" Warriors voice echoed around the trees, the wind carrying hope towards him, and Wind pushed down the guilt of making Warriors wonder away from the group to come and find him. He clearly wasn't going to make it back by himself.

"I'm here." He called out into the depths of the forest, and he sat up just in time to watch Warriors wonder out of the undergrowth, a small lantern in his hand, looking very similar to Hyrule's, and a sword on his back, being much prepared than Wind was.

"There you are!" Warriors had a small smile on his face as he sat down next to Wind, much to his surprise. Shouldn't Warriors be yelling at him for wondering away from the group? He did that to Wild and Hryule. Would Warriors be upset at Wind for keeping something from the group? He had been when Twilight had revealed to the group that he was Wolfie, and Wind didn’t miss the side glances that he would throw at the back of Four’s head because of his comment about his sword.

"Did you do anything stupid while you were away from the group?" Warriors asked kindly, and Wind shrugged. It was stupid of him to storm off from the group, wasn't it? Stupid of him to overreact over his birthday. Stupid of him to think that the others wouldn’t find out when it was.

"I kicked a tree. Does that count?" Wind asked, and Warriors thought about for a second before giving him a shrug of his own.

"I don't have much experience with kicking trees. As long as you're not hurt, and the tree doesn’t mind, then I can't see the harm." Warriors replied, before looking over the small boy. Now that Legend had pointed it out to him, he could see how tired Wind was, with bruises underneath his eyes and the long blinks that he was taking, his eyelids obviously too heavy to keep bringing up. He placed the card into Wind's lap, having picked it up when where Wind had left it back at camp.

"You never mentioned how good of an artist your sister was," Warriors said, his voice barely above a whisper. Wind blinked, as if surprised to see his birthday card on his lap before letting out a small laugh.

"Yeah, she loved doing with Ma and Da before they died, but afterwards, she just threw herself into it, it took me forever to convince her to come outside with me after the final journey ceremony." Wind traced his finger over the outline of the drawing. It was much harder to make out in the dim light, but Wind had been using the Windwaker for two years now, he knew what it looked like without looking at it, the scratches and indents that showed off its usage.

"The others didn't mean to bug you over your birthday like they did, k'know?" Warriors said as pulled Wind close to him, throwing the scarf over his little brother's neck in hopes to stop the shivers. Warriors needed to get him back to the fire soon, but he didn't want to make him uncomfortable. "The other's just want an excuse to fuss over you, and to celebrate you being here with us. Doesn't excuse their actions, but they weren't out of malice" Wind gave a half-hearted shrug at Warriors words.

"Nothing good ever happens on my birthday," Wind muttered sleepily as he leaned closely to Warriors. "Ma and Pa had their final journey ceremony and Aryll was kidnapped and then the Wind Fish decided he was gonna get me involved with his issues but no one believed me and-" Warriors couldn't make out what else Wind was trying to say, only hearing muffled sobs and felt his tunic getting wet from Wind's tears.

So Warriors held Wind close, making sure to take the card out of his lap so that it wouldn't get ruined, and hugged Wind tightly.

It took a while for the sobbing to slow down to a stop, and even when it did, they stayed in the hug for a while, until Wind's stomach interrupted what was otherwise a nice heart-warming moment.

"Y'know, I'm pretty sure that Wild should be done with the stew now. Not that I know how to cook stew, but I'm pretty sure you don't cook it all night." Wind let out a wet giggle at his words, standing up and brushing off all of the dirt that had stuck itself to them during their bonding moment.

"Are the others not mad at me for yelling and running off, and not telling them it's my birthday today?" Wind asked in a small voice, and it reminded Warriors of what he had said earlier. Sure, kid was not the word that Warriors would use to describe Wind to anyone, but rather inexperience.

Not that it was his fault of course, it's was something that would only get better with time.

"After the yelling that me and Time gave them? I'll be very surprised and disappointed." Warrior's started to lead the way back to the group, mainly being lead along by the sweet smell of the boar stew that Wild had made.

"And you know you can talk about anything to us, right? I've never heard of this 'Wind Fish' guy, but he sounds like an ass," Warriors smiled as Wind let out a snort.

"An ass? Oh, he's more than an ass. I'd much rather deal with Ganon again than him, and that's saying a lot!"

**Author's Note:**

> So i wrote this over the course of two livewrites on the LU server, so thanks to everyone who supported me during that! 
> 
> Also, I'm currently accepting commissions on my tumblr! www.skiewrites.tumblr.com
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments, it really means a lot to me.


End file.
